Inspiration, ideas and information to help women build public speaking content, confidence and credibility. Denise Graveline is a Washington, DC-based speaker coach who has coached nearly 200 TEDMED and TEDx speakers--including one of 2016's most popular TED talks. She also has prepared speakers for presentations, testimony, and keynotes. She offers 1:1 coaching and group workshops in public speaking, presentation and media interview skills to both men and women.

Monday, December 19, 2011

Public speaking was a hallmark of Margaret Thatcher's career, long before she became Britain's prime minister--and public speaking is emerging as a strong theme in the new movie The Iron Lady, which debuts January 6 in the UK. Now CBS has featured the movie's star, Meryl Streep, in an interview that also zeroes in on several aspects of Thatcher's speaking and how Streep brought it to the screen.

Thatcher's hiring of an acting coach is noted in the interview. "Her voice was sort of lighter, like mine is," Streep said. "And they taught her to support it, to bring it up from the depths of her place, where the conviction lies, and to carry it through without a breath, until the end of a thought. And then not to give 'em a chance to interrupt her."

She objects when it's pointed out that she's played a lot of strong-minded women. "No one has ever asked an actor, 'You're playing a strong-minded man.' We assume that men are strong-minded, or have opinions. But a strong-minded woman is a different animal," Streep said.

The story also notes that Streep is active in the campaign to build a National Women's History Museum in Washington and shows her at a fundraiser quoting Thatcher: "If you want something spoken about, ask a man. If you want it done, ask a woman."

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